Ghost Trace Stellar

Organised by Polytechnic & Kate Sweeney. Part of the Polytechnic ecologies programme

We're working with Polytechnic to develop an evening of free music at Star and Shadow, an open volunteer-run social space and Cinema in Newcastle. We're inviting bands, musicians, producers and DJs to perform covers, versions, remixes or interpretations of the 1920s and 30s out-of-copyright folk, blues, and jazz from the Open Music Archive. A series of live plugged and unplugged performances will be recorded and licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike, generating a new resource - free for use and reuse in the future.

The event opens up a temporary channel for music, exchange and discussion that operates beyond individual proprietary and commercial interests.

Felix's Machines

Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive) play a DJ set featuring out-of-copyright clips, blips and loops sampled from 19th Century music boxes, player pianos and other automated music machines. This is followed by a performance of new compositions made in collaboration with Felix Thorn for Felix's Machines, and assembled from out-of-copyright material for the player piano.

FREE GIFT: a copyleft licensed CD featuring the new compositions and source files will be given away on the night.

Open Music Archive Outlet, London

Artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White set up the first temporary outlet for their Open Music
Archive. Distributing direct to the public, the outlet makes available the out-of-copyright and copyleft
material from the archive on CDs, CDRs, and vinyl. Featuring new live recordings from Serafina
Steer, Hest, Magic Arm, Sisters of Transistors, Per Ahlund and Mathias Josefson (Fylkingen),
MC Strategy (Broke 'n' English); studio recordings by Homelife Duo, Liz Green, Sundowner; clips, blips and loops sampled mechanical music boxes; and 1920s and 30s archive source recordings by Leroy Carr, Virginia Liston, Cleo Brown and Honey Hill and more. . .

Visitors to the outlet can browse, listen and take away the music. The CDs and records are available
in exchange for a suggested donation and all material is out-of-copyright or copyleft - free for use and
reuse in the future.

The outlet is set up in collaboration with designer Ismini Adami.

This is not a gateway

Open Music Archive DJ set at:

This is not a gateway festival launch
Thursday 23rd October 2008
7pm at Cafe Oto , Ashwin St, Dalston, London.

Photosocial, The Photographers' Gallery

Photosocial [4]
29 May 2008 18:30-21:30
Photographers Gallery

See new photography with music, debate and diversion.

The next in an ongoing series of bar nights will include a debate on The Amateur vs the Professional as well as a projection of Screen Tests by Neil Cummings, Marysia Lewandowska, Eileen Simpson and Ben White.

Free, spaces limited, so come along early!

Electronic Music Festival, Amman

Outdoor screening of Screen Tests, and Dragline with live musical accompaniment by Ben White. The music, which has been sourced from out-of-copyright early 20th Century 78rpm records will be manipulated in real-time.

Feedback 4 Book Launch, New York

Disclosures, London

For Disclosures Eileen Simpson & Ben White create Declose, a project to create a copyleft licensed 12" vinyl scratch tool containing a range of samples, beats and extracts made from the out-of-copyright blues, jazz and folk housed in the Open Music Archive.

The artists promote collaboration and seek to explore its significance and value for creative production. For Declose they invite producers and members of the burntprogress community to create new remix tracks, short vocal snippets, percussive noises, samples, breaks and beats - made entirely from the out-of-copyright music in the Open Music Archive - to make up the battle vinyl.

Declose Launch Event:

Featuring scratch routines, live experiments and improvisation using the Declose vinyl by:

Clips, Blips and Loops #2, Geneva

For Clips, Blips and Loops #2, we are inviting producers, musicians and DJs to contribute to the collection of free source tools available here. This is an extension of a project developed in Stockholm, November 2007. In February 2008 all of the tools will be gathered together to produce a CD that will be freely distributed at a public performance at an event in Geneva on 13th March.

Loose Booty, London

For Loose Booty, a new exhibition by Pearl Projects, Eileen Simpson & Ben White have brought together a number of different cover versions of Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, originally written by Clarence "Pinetop" Smith of Chicago (d. 1929). The various out-of-copyright versions, including those by Bing Crosby and Honey Hill, and a new track made entirely from the out-of-copyright elements, are to be burned on CDs and given away for free at the exhibition as a way of disseminating materials that are in the public domain.

Vegas Gallery
64-66 Redchurch Street
London E2 7DP

After Party - featuring Open Music Archive out-of-copyright/copyleft laptop and DJ set
23 January 9pm 'til late at Green and Red Basement Bar 51 Redchurch Street, E2

Screen Tests - The Bigger Picture, Manchester

Screen Tests - Neil Cummings, Marysia Lewandowska, Eileen Simpson, Ben White
The film unfolds as a series of Andy Warhol-like screen tests, slowly revealing the location and the occupation of those before the camera - students and models from the Manchester School of Art.

Broadcast Times - Neil Cummings, Marysia Lewandowska, Eileen Simpson, Ben White
As the exhibition train leaves the platform, we are taken on a journey of 'a happy hunting ground for tycoons' the birth of commercial television broadcasting.

Who Makes And Owns Your Work, Stockholm

In an attempt to cross the boundaries of idea and practice, Iaspis and Konstfack initiated a project on production, distribution and ownership of cultural matter and artistic knowledge starting in December 2006. On 17th November 2007 the project will open itself up by letting the gathered knowledge be combined with that of invited guests, in an event aiming at an in-depth look on the making and owning of contemporary culture.

Free-to-air (Cornerhouse, Manchester)

From 15-25th July 2007 Open Music Archive will be resident at Cornerhouse, Manchester's international centre for contemporary arts.

For two weeks Eileen Simpson & Ben White will be producing a series of live events and programmes for a temporary FM radio station broadcasting across Manchester. (106.5FM artradio.fm)

We're inviting bands and musicians to respond to the rare out-of-copyright folk, blues, and jazz from the Open Music Archive; to work with forgotten lyrics, chords, melodies and beats, and to make new cover versions of forgotten tracks.

For two weeks the gallery will host live plugged and unplugged performances and one-off broadcasts by Manchester's finest upcoming and established bands and musicians.

Long Night - Cornerhouse, Manchester

As an introduction to the Free-to-air project, Eileen Simpson & Ben White invited guest DJs Jon K (Eyes Down/Fat City) and Upstate Rockers to explore sampling, reworking and exchange via the cover version - from Reggae Elvis and a Dubstep Prince, to a kid's cover of Slade via Detroit HipHop. Both DJs presented special sets made entirely from cover versions, bootlegs and mash ups. More info

If Elsewhere - Scatter Projects

Simpson & White will present a DJ set featuring out-of-copyright material from the archive, live electronic remixes, and a sneak preview of cover versions of out-of-copyright blues, folk, music hall and jazz recorded by a range bands for their upcoming project Free-to-air - part of ARTRADIO at Cornerhouse, Manchester in July '07.

British Art Show Symposium Bristol - Live Event

Outdoor screening of Broadcast Times, Screen Tests, and Dragline with live musical accompaniment by Ben White. The music, which has been sourced from out-of-copyright early 20th Century 78rpm records will be manipulated in real-time using samplers and DJ turntables.